Improved Forms and Procedures

New forms and updated procedures related to leave administration at UF are designed to save you time and paper.

Based on your feedback, we are pleased to introduce revised paperwork designed to accommodate extended leaves of absence for USPS and A&P employees more easily. To assist you, we also have revised other forms and updated UF’s “USPS and A&P Termination Procedures.”

Easier Completion: The “USPS and A&P Request for Extended Leave of Absence” form (UPS-RELOA-001) has been revised to allow for a more accurate accounting of an employee’s absence from work during an extended leave-allowing for periods of complete absence, reduced work schedules, and intermittent absences from work-as well as allowing employees to use their paid leave several different ways during those periods of absence.

No More Change Orders: In addition, the Request for Extended Leave of Absence form has been revised so as to eliminate the need for a separate personnel status change order. While additional demographic information now is required on the form, departments no longer will need to submit a separate change order when placing an employee on an extended leave of absence. (The appropriate change order will, however, need to be completed upon the employee’s return to his/her regular work assignments.) We believe this change alone should save departments a lot of energy and tracking of additional pieces of paper.

Plan Absences More Easily: In addition, the “USPS and A&P Intermittent Use of Paid Leave Application,” for use when an employee will be absent from work for more than fifteen days, also has been revised. The form now includes dates for each of the pay periods during the 1997-1998 fiscal-year, along with information regarding when state holidays will be observed, which pay periods do not have standard deductions being taken, and space to designate how much total compensation an employee will receive during each specific pay period. These adjustments to the form should allow employees to project their paid-leave needs better. The revisions also will allow Processing and Records to move employees in and out of pay status throughout their extended leaves in order to allow departments greater flexibility in using their salary dollars. Forms for future fiscal years will become available approximately three months prior to the beginning of each new fiscal year.

One Form, Not Two: University Personnel Services has been looking for other ways in which to streamline our processes, and in conjunction with Academic Personnel, we are pleased to announce that the Central Leave System “Demographic Update” and the “Leave Balance Adjustment” forms have been updated and combined. The “one-form” format will reduce the amount of paperwork departmental leave administrators currently have to complete when requesting changes to an employee’s central leave record. This form may be used for faculty as well as USPS and A&P employees.

No Longer Required: Further, in an effort to reduce the amount of paperwork currently required, departmental leave administrators no longer will be required to complete the “Leave Used Adjustment” form when making adjustments to an employee’s used leave record. If a hard-copy record of an adjustment is needed, departmental leave administrators may print-screen a copy of the detailed record in the Central Leave System.

Please note: All of the above referenced forms are available on diskette! Departments that would like a copy of the forms should mail a blank formatted disk to Employee Development, P.O. Box 115006. These forms are set up as Microsoft Word 6.0 templates and will allow payroll and leave administrators to tab to appropriate fields and enter information without changing the form’s formatting or text. Again, we hope this alternate format will make everyone’s job easier.

One final change we would like to announce is the updated “USPS and A&P Termination Procedures”-produced in cooperation with Finance and Accounting, Information Systems, and University Personnel Services. The new procedures reflect the State University System and University of Florida rule changes that have occurred during the past year. We hope you will find it a valuable tool as you process the terminal leave payments for your USPS and A&P staff members.

Copies of all of the above forms and procedures have been mailed to departmental leave administrators. Should you like additional copies, you may download them from our Web site at http://www.admin.ufl.edu/division/ps/ (they will be available shortly!) or call Employee Development at 392-4626.

Overall, we hope you will be pleased with the above noted changes. However, we actively encourage your feedback, so please call me at 392-4626 (SunCom 622-4626) with your comments and suggestions. I look forward to hearing from you!